The present invention relates generally to the delivery of telephone messages to voice mail boxes, and more particularly to the delivery of telephone messages to voice mail boxes associated with non-published phone numbers.
Directory Assistance Systems have been widely used in telephone networks. The systems allow callers to request and receive directory numbers for businesses, residences, and government offices.
FIG. 1 shows a typical call flow for a directory assistance (DA) call. A caller 10 first dials a DA number such as 411 or 555-1212. Caller 10 is routed through local switch 11 to an Operator Services Switch 12. An operator 13, having both a data and voice connection to Operator Services Switch 12, receives information supplied by caller 10 identifying a desired listed party. Operator 13 sends to a DA database 14 information received from caller 10, and receives back from DA database 14 a list of possible matches corresponding to the supplied information. Operator 13 then selects, either on his own or through communication with caller 10, the desired party from the list and transmits this selection back to DA database 14. DA database 14 then instructs Operator Services Switch 12 to terminate the link with operator 13 and establish a voice connection between caller 10 and an automatic recording unit (ARU) 15. Finally, DA database 14 provides ARU 15 with the selected phone number and ARU 15 plays an announcement including the directory listing number. When the directory listing is non-published, ARU 15 plays an announcement indicating that fact to caller 10, at which point caller 10 hangs up.
For non-published numbers, the caller cannot directly contact the desired party, which is one of the purposes of having a non-published number. The non-published party may, however, wish to allow people to contact him indirectly, such as by leaving a voice mail.
Conventional voice mail systems cannot allow such contact. A typical voice mail system is shown in FIG. 2. A caller 20 attempts to call party 28 via local switches 21 and 27. If called party 28 does not answer, or if the line is busy, local switch 27 forwards the call to voice mail (VM) system 29. Using the number of called party 28, VM system 29 connects caller 20 to the voice mail box of called party 28 to leave a message.
To retrieve his voice mail, called party 28 places a call via local switch 27 to VM system 29. VM system 29 uses the calling number of called party 28 to identify the correct voice mail box. Alternatively, VM system 29 may prompt called party 28 to enter a voice mail box number and a password. Then, VM system 29 plays the messages contained in the mail box.
Currently, however, no system exists to combine current VM systems with DA systems to allow a caller to leave a message in a voice mail box associated with a non-published number. There is, therefore, a need for a system and method to allow a caller using a directory assistance service to leave a voice mail message for parties with non-published numbers in lieu of contacting them directly. Such a system and method should work both in pre-local number portability and local number portability environments.